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In:Language Contact and Change in the Americas: Studies in honor of Marianne Mithun
Edited by Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker, Diane M. Hintz and Carmen Dagostino
[Studies in Language Companion Series 173] 2016
► pp. 139–166

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“Excorporation” in a Dene (Athabaskan) language

 | University of Toronto
Published online: 19 April 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.173.07ric
In the Fort Good Hope variety of the Dene (North Slavey) language, Proto-Athabaskan *n generally is realized as [r] in an oral environment and as [n] in a nasal environment. However, in some cases where alternations between [n] and [r] are expected based on closely related varieties, only the [r] variety is found. One consequence of this restructuring is that derivational affixes that were historically closely integrated into the verb word from a phonological perspective are now less fully integrated. This type of language change is typologically unusual. I suggest that it was motivated by the pressure to retain consistency of morpheme shape, perhaps to aid communication with speakers of a related but quite different language, representing a type of contact effect.
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